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On 8 May, a wedding was broken up on the steps of the London headquarters of the Church of England.

Christ’s bride (representing the church) was about to be given in marriage to the fossil fuel industry, when Jesus objected and persuaded the bride to break her engagement with fossil fuels and to seek forgiveness.

Christian Climate Action’s sketch was one of dozens of actions around the UK during the Global Divestment Mobilisation (5 – 13 May).

Thousands of people participated in over 280 events in 45 countries to put pressure on institutions to break their financial ties with fossil fuel companies.

In the UK, the theatrical group BP Or Not BP? staged an ‘Oily Cashmob’ at the British Museum contrasting the £210m the UK government gives BP in tax subsidies (for North Sea oil production) with the £2m BP gives to the arts.

This was one of several arts events during the mobilisation, including a 12 May performance by Fossil Free Culture inside the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

The protest against sponsorship by oil giant Shell involved a few drops of syrup (fake oil) which triggered nine arrests including those of two bystanders.

Four ‘artivists’ who refused to identify themseves (in solidarity with undocumented migrants) were held in jail for three days.

These boots are made...

A few weeks earlier, on 29 April, another global event was the Peoples’ Climate March, which took place in Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, and many other countries.

Over 200,000 people surrounded the White House in Washington, DC, USA, and tens of thousands took part at mor than 370 sister marches across the US.A week before that, on 22 April, the March for Science (which had an anticlimate denial element to it) was also a global protest, with marches in more than 600 cities around the world, including Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London and Manchester.